lection naturally produced
a dispute on the advantages and defects of the Roman government, which
was severely arraigned by the apostate, and defended by Priscus in a
prolix and feeble declamation. The freedman of Onegesius exposed, in
true and lively colors, the vices of a declining empire, of which he
had so long been the victim; the cruel absurdity of the Roman princes,
unable to protect their subjects against the public enemy, unwilling to
trust them with arms for their own defence; the intolerable weight of
taxes, rendered still more oppressive by the intricate or arbitrary
modes of collection; the obscurity of numerous and contradictory laws;
the tedious and expensive forms of judicial proceedings; the partial
administration of justice; and the universal corruption, which increased
the influence of the rich, and aggravated the misfortunes of the poor.
A sentiment of patriotic sympathy was at length revived in the breast of
the fortunate exile; and he lamented, with a flood of tears, the guilt
or weakness of those magistrates who had perverted the wisest and most
salutary institutions. [32]

[Footnote 27: The missionaries of St. Chrysostom had converted great
numbers of the Scythians, who dwelt beyond the Danube in tents and
wagons. Theodoret, l. v. c. 31. Photius, p. 1517. The Mahometans, the
Nestorians, and the Latin Christians, thought themselves secure
of gaining the sons and grandsons of Zingis, who treated the rival
missionaries with impartial favor.]

[Footnote 28: The Germans, who exterminated Varus and his legions, had
been particularly offended with the Roman laws and lawyers. One of the
Barbarians, after the effectual precautions of cutting out the tongue of
an advocate, and sewing up his mouth, observed, with much satisfaction,
that the viper could no longer hiss. Florus, iv. 12.]

[Footnote 29: Priscus, p. 59. It should seem that the Huns preferred the
Gothic and Latin languages to their own; which was probably a harsh and
barren idiom.]

[Footnote 30: Philip de Comines, in his admirable picture of the last
moments of Lewis XI., (Memoires, l. vi. c. 12,) represents the insolence
of his physician, who, in five months, extorted 54,000 crowns, and a
rich bishopric, from the stern, avaricious tyrant.]

[Footnote 31: Priscus (p. 61) extols the equity of the Roman laws, which
protected the life of a slave. Occidere solent (says Tacitus of the
Germans) non disciplina et severitate, sed impetu et ira, ut